Peter Tapsell
Main Page: Peter Tapsell (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)Department Debates - View all Peter Tapsell's debates with the HM Treasury
(14 years, 4 months ago)
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Danny Alexander
No, that is not true. The plain fact is that, as I said earlier, we have the fastest growing debt and the largest deficit in the European Union apart from Ireland. In the Budget we have taken action to ensure that we prevent the key risk facing growth in this country, which is a failure to take action and a failure to restore confidence in the economy, potentially causing us the sort of problems that we have seen in other European countries. That is the problem that we need to avoid.
Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth and Horncastle) (Con)
Does the Chief Secretary agree that it is the refinancing capability of the national debt as redemption dates are reached that really matters?
Danny Alexander
Of course that matters, but what matters more than anything is the risks that this economy would have faced if we had stuck with the plans of the previous Government, which would have risked higher interest rates, lower growth and fewer jobs, and there would have been very big risks in the future.